Alyssa McCarthy's Magical Missions-Frome Frights to Flaws

                Alyssa McCarthy’s Magical Missions: From Frights to Flaws, written by new author Sunayna Prasad, is the first in a new series for pre-teens that follows Alyssa as she and her friends discover magic really does exist and must fight the evil Master Beau. At 208 pages it’s fairly lengthy for a pre-teen book but does read quite quickly. Alyssa, the main character, is being raised by her Uncle Bruce, a rather strict guardian, so Alyssa would much rather live with her godfather even though she hasn’t seen him in years. She seems to be rather blasé about the fact that Master Beau wants to kill her and the explanation of why he wants to is rather convoluted and confusing. I’m not sure it would make a whole lot of sense to a kid. It didn’t even make sense to me. Some of the plot lines don’t make a lot of sense, such as a kid who is already living with a nasty adult and wants to go live with someone who is basically a stranger to them. The dialogue isn’t always strong either. However, I did overall enjoy the book and I can see a lot of talent in the storytelling. The author even ends with a bit of a cliff-hanger which will leave the kids wanting to read the next book in the series. The formatting and editing worked fine on my computer and the cover, I believe, will be enticing for a child to want to pick up and read.